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Tuesday, August 8, 2017

No Sirens Sounded as Tornado Leaves Injuries, Damages in Tulsa

Eric Chaney
Published: August 7,2017

No sirens were sounded in Tulsa despite an EF2 tornado that swept
through the city early Sunday morning, leaving a trail of damage and
injuries in its wake.
"The National Weather Service issued a tornado warning at 1:25 a.m.," the city of Tulsa said in a statement to
the Tulsa World. "This particular storm spun up at such a quick rate
between scans of the radar and by the time the NWS issued the warning,
the storm was crossing into Broken Arrow."
Roger Jolliff, director of the Tulsa Emergency Management agency, told CBS News they did not sound the sirens because the twister had already moved on to the neighboring city.
"I said if it's in Broken Arrow, we will not sound our sirens because
the threat at that time that we had got this information... was going
into Broken Arrow," Jolliff told CBS.
Tulsa mayor G.T. Bynum said in Facebook post Sunday that city
officials gave a "heads up" to officials in Broken Arrow, allowing them
to activate their sirens in time.
The tornado left restaurants and storefronts in the mid town portion
of Tulsa in ruins, CBS reports, and two people were taken to the
hospital with life-threatening injuries.
Around 30 others were transported to St. Francis Hospital for minor
injuries sustained in the storm, according to The Associated Press.
Emergency Medical Services Authority spokeswoman Kelli Bruer, told the
AP eight of the injured were taken from a TGI Fridays restaurant, four
from a Whataburger restaurant and one person who was in the area when
the storm hit.
"It's a highly commercial area with a lot of people normally in
there. There's a mall, there's a movie theater, a TGI Fridays," Meloy
said. The area also includes some industrial sites.
There have been numerous reports of damage to roofs, power poles,
signs and trees in Tulsa. Interstate 44 on the southeast side of the
city was closed after a large overhead sign fell, according to a damage
report submitted to the National Weather Service. Promenade Mall will also be closed today due to storm damage, according to Newson6.com.
Crews confirmed the storm caused a gas leak at a Jimmy Johns restaurant in the midtown area, FOX23.com reports. They were able to shut the gas off in the area. More than 12,000 customers had lost power as of Sunday morning, according to the Public Service Company of Oklahoma.
Two smaller twisters hit not long after the first, an EF1 in Broken Arrow and another EF1 in Oologah, respectively.
Despite Oklahoma's place in the heart of Tornado Alley, Jolliff told
the Tulsa World he tries to not "over-warn" in his job because studies
have shown people stop paying attention to sirens if they sound too
often and seemingly without cause.
"We want to be safe (rather) than sorry, but you don’t want to be so
safe that you cause other people to lose confidence in the decisions
you're making," he said.
Bynum said Sunday that the city will review its siren procedures and protocols.
"After we are done with this cleanup, the City will review our
technology and protocols for initiating sirens," Bynum posted. "We will
make whatever improvements need to be made to best protect Tulsans."

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